Work To Begin Soon On Proposed Downtown Movie House

PITTSBURGH, PA - Work is slated to begin this fall on transforming the former Bally fitness club on Sixth Street Downtown into a new multiplex cinema. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which is spearheading the $12 million project, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette it intends to start demolition inside the vacant building.

Trust CEO Kevin McMahon told the newspaper that he is optimistic the proposed five-screen theater will be open within two years.

One potential operator of the theater is Bow Tie Cinemas, whose CEO chairs the board of board chair of the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Theatre Historical Society of America. The society owns the Hollywood Theater in Dormont. Another potential operator is is Rick Stern, who owns the Manor Theater in Squirrel Hill.

The Bally fitness club once was the Gateway, a first-run movie theater for decades. It closed in 1980 as suburban multiplexes were sending Downtown and neighborhood theaters into an irreversible death spiral.

Photo: Google Maps.

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